Disclaimer: (Anyone who knows me understands that I am all for community work placements as long as the core skills of the role are met. Today this was not the case.)
On the first leg of my transcontinental journey today I started with a 45 minute delay. No problem there. I landed in Dallas and was met by my wheelchair attendant who firstly I thought was going to go into cardiac arrest while pushing me from the plane to the gate area. I briefly felt better when we arrived and there was no need for CPR. Secondly. the respite was short lived as I heard him whispering to himself. I ignored it thinking he was cursing his luck for getting an oversized passenger. I soon realised he was also answering himself. I know my situation was a bit complex with having to pick up my bag to have it re-checked for my London trip but he was clearly confused and when I asked him if he knew where we needed to go he responded with. “oh yea, sure”, in a bad impression of a Texas accent. It went rapidly sideways from here to the point of taking me outside of security and immediately back in where I had to go through the whole TSA routine for the second time in 15 minutes. Next thing I know we are once again outside of security to check my one bag , which has been doing the rounds with us. Finally we got my bag re-checked and guess where we had to go next? Yep, through security. This time the TSA guy just looked at me and laughed.
The wheelchair attendant was now ramping up his “internal dialogue” with “did you hear that?” I was under no illusion that he was talking to me. After passing the airline lounge (that was our intended destination), we circled back. As we arrived at the lounge check in desk I was saying my grateful goodbyes to my attendant only to hear the lounge check in guy say “oh ma’am you have access to the Flagship Lounge, it is much nicer there.” I said I was more than happy to stay where I was and he insisted I would feel more comfortable at the other lounge. I mouthed to him that I would go if he called a different attendant to take me as I was convinced by this point that my guy had a machete and a Voo doo doll stashed somewhere waiting for me!
An hour after arriving in Dallas I made it safe and sound to the Flagship Lounge with the able assistance of my second wheelchair attendant, whom I tipped generously! Okay, two more legs to go, let’s hope it is completely uneventful.
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